Could Drinking Coffee Reduce Health Risks?

What if your morning cup of coffee could make you healthier? That’s the question asked by recent research into the potential positive effects of caffeine intake on our health. Many attention-grabbing headlines suggest that drinking coffee can have detrimental effects on our health. Is this just fearmongering, or is there real evidence behind it?

Those of us that just love coffee likely aren’t even thinking of its potential benefits as we reach for our third or fourth cup of coffee for the day. In 2016, coffee was struck off the World Health Organisation’s list of potential carcinogens, as new research found that coffee was not associated with increasing the risk of cancer. It was, in fact, found that it could even reduce the risk of cancer. There is mounting evidence that instead, coffee could potentially be thought of as a beverage that’s good for our health.

Coffee has been known to affect how cancer develops. From the start of the cancer cells to their death, coffee plays a vital role in how they act. Coffee can help to speed digestion through the colon and produce bile acids. Together, this can reduce the number of carcinogens our colon tissue is exposed to. Plus, studies on animals have suggested that polyphenols found in coffee may prevent cancer growth. Coffee may also reduce the levels of estrogen in the body, and many studies have previously linked estrogen to cancer.

Drinking more coffee could also be beneficial for our hearts. One study found that coffee intake could lower the chance of heart disease by around 21%. Another piece of research found that among more than 80,000 people, those who drank four or more cups of coffee each day had a 20% lower risk of suffering from a stroke. Interestingly, that study did not achieve similar findings for tea or other caffeinated drinks, suggesting that it is something specific to coffee that is good for our bodies.

At the end of the day, there is a lot of evidence suggesting that coffee does not increase your risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and other illnesses. Much of the research instead points strongly towards the potential benefits of coffee and how it can decrease risk factors for many diseases.

One factor that you should be aware of is that some of the so-called negative findings may have been more associated with what people add to their coffees rather than the coffee istself. Days of a French press coffee with breakfast are long gone, with more people opting for sugar, syrups, cream, artificial sweetener, and other additives in their coffees. Iced coffees are one of the worst culprits. When you order a coffee Frappuccino, for example, these drinks often contain sugar even when you didn’t request it. Sugar is an integral part of how they get it to blend smoothly with the ice in the mixer.

Perhaps if more people chose to drink standard coffee, such as plunger coffee or from a coffee capsule, they could truly benefit from the gains to be made from drinking coffee.

In recent times, Nespresso capsules NZ are gaining in popularity, indicating that the tide is turning on overly sweetened, artificial coffees. Not only can making your own coffee at home with your own coffee machine or plunger cut out those added extras, but it can also save you money. Stop wasting your income on sugary drinks that aren’t doing your health any favours. Drinking a standard espresso or long black can take us back to the days when coffee was simple, and simply good for you.